Presentation: Dream job? The vision and journey to the company culture you want

This session is part talk and part workshop. We aim to give you insight into how important culture is to your business and your happiness, the inspiration to recognise the type of culture you want to build - and the practical tools that will help make your vision a reality.

It begins with a story from the founder of a tech start-up known for its unusual structure - employee owned with a flat hierarchy and ‘radical management’.

From employee theft on minimum wage to frustration as head of departments, Helen describes working in broken cultures. After years of experiencing the price exacted from customers, employees and shareholders alike, she realised that a rigid hierarchical culture hurt everyone - no matter what their place within it. Along with two colleagues, she went on to found Gamevy, a company in which the culture came first - before product or customers. For Gamevy this meant making the company’s aim to increase employee happiness through ownership and freedom.

A new beginning is not the only way to change culture. We can make gradual changes, attract adherents, dictate top-down changes, organise grass-root campaigns … What all of these have in common is the need to communicate with one another what type of culture we want and how to get there. The way we choose to communicate can have a huge impact on how likely our cultural change is to take root and succeed.

Pete will run an interactive workshop session in which participants work in small groups and explore different types of communication. Specifically we practise how we might shift from advocating (telling people what we think the solutions are) to enquiry (figuring out together what might be going on and what to do about it). This turns the vision of ‘culture change’ into some practical skills in uncovering assumptions, asking key questions and kickstarting change. Participants can apply the insights and practises straight away in their work.

Speaker: Helen Walton

Founder @Gamevy; Author and Branding Specialist

Helen Walton is co-founder of Gamevy, a tech start-up bringing gameshows online and who recently launched their first game on Facebook – Blackjack Attack. As a company, they are employee-owned with no bosses and a democratic decision-making structure. She began her career working in marketing for Unilever before specialising in branding and copywriting for clients ranging from publishers to supermarkets. Helen has written 18 books for Value Flow Quality – the Agile Practitioner Course approved by the BCS. She has written numerous articles for different magazines and events, including InfoQ, but also on subjects as diverse as make-up in the Mail on Sunday and Henry Moore’s sculptures for Tate Britain. Helen is one of the organisers of the Spark the Change event which runs in London, 3-4 July. It aims to transform the whole business, not just a part – allowing us to build more successful businesses, become better leaders and create happy workplaces. Speakers include Tim Harford, Jurgen Appelo and Simon Baker, while companies involved include Unilever, change.org and PropellerNet.

Find Helen Walton at

I ask useful and interesting questions – questions which move things on and get things going in better ways. I know about change, strategy, and group dynamics. And I can guide and support others, making it safe to experiment and try new things. I know that together we can bring about significant change, achieve better results, and have fun along the way. I work as a facilitator of change, business consultant and leadership coach. I have done this kind of work for more than 25 years. I have worked alongside many entrepreneurs, business owners and MDs. I have worked with very large companies – for a US Fortune 50 company, now part of HP, and with several FTSE 100 companies. I worked for the BBC and helped them and other near-public sector organisations make the move into the digital world, to industry acclaim. I have also worked at the other end of the scale, with SMEs: I was chair of social media business NixonMcInnes while it enjoyed rapid growth in a brand new market. I set up an innovative network for SME owners. And I have worked in and with several innovative digital startups, including my own. So I also understand the realities of small business life. I am currently interested in more 'responsive' strategy, and how to introduce this approach to modern, digitally-enabled businesses.